B took the train from France to Madrid on Tuesday and got settled into our airbnb, then woke up early on Wednesday to pick a somewhat bedraggled L up from the airport and bring him safely back on the metro.
We're staying in a nice little two-story place on a corner in a more residential area, just a half-hour metro ride from anywhere in town. The neighbourhood feels a bit Latin American, but maybe we're just biased. Our front door and windows open right onto the narrow roads, and we can hear the cars and scooters motoring by, but the bedrooms in the basement are blissfully quiet.
After a quick nap to help shake off L's jet lag, we struck out into the city, stopping only to grab a travel sim card, with B pointing out the things she'd scouted out in advance. A metro ride took us towards El Retiro park, but we got out early to see a Baroque cathedral that L had bookmarked, la Iglesia Parroquial de Santa Bárbara.
We wandered through the Chueca neighbourhood and found a fancy food court in a market building. B got two seafood bites from a tapas place, which pleased her greatly, and we shared some very delicious made-to-order croquetas: jamón ibérico, and (particularly tasty) manchego & caramelized peppers.
Gran Via was filled with big ornate stately building on either side, and the busy area to the south was particularly notable for a housing protest encampment taking up all of the Puerta del Sol plaza, with tents and tarps and hand-made art with emphatic messages.
Our next destination was a well-regarded churreria, where we got churros and dipped them into a small glass of dark chocolate lava. This gave us the fortitude to press on to the botanical gardens, Real Jardín Botánico, where we wandered around for hours and found all kinds of new birds. The big El Retiro park next door offered big shady trees, busy intersecting gravel paths, and a big pond absolutely teeming with blue rowboats. At one point we were watching some birds enjoying a woodsy puddle when a kestrel or sparrowhawk dove out of nowhere and made off with a sparrow in its talons.
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